Louis Sarno
Louis J. Sarno (born July 3, 1954 in Newark , New Jersey , † April 1, 2017 in Teaneck , New Jersey) was an American music researcher. He explored the dying chants of Baka - pygmies in the rainforests of the Congo Basin . Sarno lived among Baka pygmies for more than 25 years, learned their language, married there and had two sons.
Life
Louis Sarno was already interested in classical German music as a boy, especially the composers Ludwig van Beethoven , Franz Schubert , Gustav Mahler and Johann Sebastian Bach . After college, he studied English and literature. When he heard traditional pygmy music on the radio in the mid-1980s, “a polyphonic network of women's voices, sophisticated yodelling sounds, an endlessly repeating rising and falling melody”, he was deeply touched and soon set off, this music himself to explore. From 1985 Sarno lived as one of them in the rainforest under the simplest living conditions.
His best-known literary work is The Song of the Forest (Song from the Forest) . Sarno had been friends with American film director Jim Jarmusch since the 1970s when they attended Northwestern College north of Chicago and inspired Jarmusch to make films such as Dead Man (1995) and Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai (1999).
Quotes
“The BaAka are born as musical child prodigies. As a teenager they send a shiver down your spine with their music, later they have the power to heal wounded souls with their singing. "
"The music of the BaAka is older than the pyramids, it is one of the most precious treasures of mankind."
Works
Books
- The song of the forest: My life with the pygmies. Hanser, Munich 1993 (Original: Song from the Forest: My Life Among the Ba-Benjellé Pygmies. )
- Bayaka: the extraordinary music of the Babenzélé Pygmies and sounds of their forest home . Ellipsis Arts, Roslyn 1995
Audio documents
- Mokoondi (1989)
- Voices of the Forest (1986-1992)
- Bayaka Harp Songs (1987)
- Echoes of the Forest: Music of the Central African Pygmies (Elipsis Arts, 1995, together with recordings by Colin M. Turnbull and Jean-Pierre Hallet )
Movie
- Michael Obert (screenplay and direction): Song from the Forest. With Louis Sarno and Jim Jarmusch. Germany, 2014
Web links
- Literature by and about Louis Sarno in the catalog of the German National Library
- The Louis Sarno Archive. Sound at the Pit Rivers Museum
- Dominik Bauer: Alone under Bayaka: The giant pygmy. Der Spiegel, March 17, 2005
- Joern Ehlers: Farewell to the white BaAka: Louis Sarno is dead. WWF Blog, April 4, 2017
- Sam Roberts: Louis Sarno Dies at 62; Moved to Africa to Preserve Ancestral Music. The New York Times, April 10, 2017
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Michael Obert: The greatest pygmy . Zeit-Magazin, No. 03/2011, January 13, 2011
- ↑ Oliver Kaever: "Song from the Forest." The jungle sings in its heart. Spiegel online, September 13, 2014
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sarno, Louis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sarno, Louis J. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American traveler and music researcher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 3rd July 1954 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Newark , New Jersey , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 1, 2017 |
| Place of death | Teaneck , New Jersey , United States |